I called a kid a Dick today

[MichaelHarris]

We had a "Day without a student" protest on campus today to speak out against a 40% tuition hike. This hike comes on the heels of a 20-30% raise in salaries for the top administrators. Being a much older student I joined in the protest, I had good-time flashbacks. It seems the rules and regulations that govern speaking out have changed. When I showed up the the "protest" everyone one was sitting on the steps and chatting.

I grabbed a few people I knew and started some chants, that lead to a march through the commons. Some young guy ran up top me and said, "we have to stop this! When I got permission for this protest I had to promise we would be quite." Wait? You had to agree to be quiet in order to get permission on a public campus to protest? They did.

Not only did they agree to be quiet, they also said they wouldn't march. I asked, "why did you bother getting out of bed today? You could have just blogged your anger away." He said he wanted to make sure people knew students were angry. By sitting quietly on the Mall with signs? That's your anger?

Well we got them chanting, we got them marching. We marched through one building with voices so load you had to hear us. We exited the building on our way to the administration building where they they proudly display the footprints left on a wall by Vietnam protesters in the 60s and 70s. We had some fire.

At the door was quiet-boy. He held his hands up and screamed, "My permit doesn't allow this! We may get in trouble!" College students today don't like trouble. They turned away from the fire they had, dropped their signs and went to class. The passion was gone, permit-boy killed it.

With TV cameras aimed at me I approached buzz-kill and asked him what his intentions were today. He didn't want to offend anyone and he wanted everyone following the rules. Just as there is no crying in baseball there are no rules in protests. I asked him did a lone student in China follow the rules when he stopped a tank in it's tracks? What rules did the kids at Jackson St. and Kent St. have when they were fired on? Did the marchers from Selma care about the rules, did they try to be quiet?

After a bit of give and take, me doing a lot of giving and him doing a lot of taking, I told him, "with all due respect you're a dick. You should go back to the dorm and blog your way to freedom and lower tuition. Continue to try and stop unjust wars, unfair fees, and huge salaries for the few on your blog. Be a keyboard warrior, I hope it works out for you."

The bad part about it is that I knew the newspaper reporters who showed up. I had laid out a plan to take over the finance office for three minutes, that's where the march was headed. I had told the media to be there, it was going to be beautiful coverage. Sixty people in a room meant to hold 20. It didn't happen, the media left and my guess is blog-boy went back to his Mac to share his experiences.







So blog-boy or buzz-kill or whatever your screen name is, I'm sorry I called you a dick. I meant it with the utmost respect.

[eilen]

1. Okay, he really wasn't a dick. He was a wienee. nt

[MichaelHarris]

4. Some chose the opposite

dick but that's a name I don't use.

[Political Heretic]

2. Uppder middle class white kids half-hearted about protesting a tuition hike their parents pay for?

O M G ! ! !

[jesus_of_suburbia]

22. Better than not caring at all.

Not that you said otherwise.

[Robb]

Kids these days

:rofl:

I hear you. It's tough, though. Remember, they don't have skin in the game like they used to. Used to be they were marching because there was a good possibility they would be sent to Vietnam and get killed. As opposed to, frankly, their parents having to cough up more dough. Well, for some of them.

Good on you anyhow.

[MichaelHarris]

5. Thanks

it was frustrating. I hooked up with some great students who wanted some action, we almost pulled it off.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. Power to the people!

[rgbecker]

6. The dick got 60 folks out there with signs....Could have been a lot worse.

They could have just never showed up...remained at the keyboard. I say good on them and you!

[Iggo]

7. Irony, much?

"Don't Take My Voice!"

"It's My Education. Listen To My Voice"

Hey, kid. Shut up. You bother me.

Okay, sir. Please don't take my permit away.

He's not a dick. He's the other thing.

[EFerrari]

8. You're a terrible influence on these kids.

lol

:applause:

[MichaelHarris]

10. LOL

I know, I try to show them what life was like without Facebook.

[femrap]

9. This generation of college

students are so obedient....little robots and so scared. Maybe 9/11 scared them. I don't know. But they are nothing like the kids I knew in college back during the Vietnam War and Watergate.

[Surely]

11. better quality

talk about wealth = college. 1960 college education was bought

[femrap]

14. I know it's only your third

post, but what are you trying to say? Wealth = college? A 1960 college education was bought?


I think we just better say so long right now and forget this ever happened.

[devilgrrl]

16. Judging from the John Edwards avatar - I'm sure he's well intended.

:sarcasm:

[femrap]

37. ....

:rofl: :rofl: :yourock:

[surrealAmerican]

15. Try complete sentences.

The shorthand post you made does not convey meaning.

[EFerrari]

12. I wonder if it was as much 9/11 or the economy.

The years I was teaching, they seemed to be more conservative every semester. I think just their tuition has more than doubled since then.

[MichaelHarris]

13. WSU

is raising it 40% next semester. It's my last semester so it doesn't affect me but I'll still march with them.

[EFerrari]

20. I need to go back for a year and can't put the tuition together

unless I sell my firstborn and he probably won't go for it.

[pnwmom]

21. Of course 9/11 scared them. I know my sons were deeply affected.

We're living in a very different world, and the media including the Internet reinforces that.

[femrap]

36. So the terrorists won?

IMHO, there is a huge difference between MSM and good, honest informative sites on the Internet that do not push the 'Fear' and 'Greed' buttons everyday.

To be honest, I'm much more afraid of the rich white dudes running our Corporations than I am of some supposed 'terrorist' who tries to set his genitals on fire.

The only way I see our world as different is decline in Democracy by scaring people to give up their rights and liberties.

As FDR said: The only thing to fear is fear itself.

[Ignis]

17. Watch out: That kid is SO going to blog about you!

I mean really, really blog...hard! Maybe twice!

:rofl:

[MichaelHarris]

24. HAHAHAHAHAHA

that's was one of the funniest things I've read her in a while, thanks for that! Hope he doesn't open his own IhateMichaelHarris.com

[Ignis]

26. Quick! Go register michaelharrissucks.com before he does!

;)

[northofdenali]

38. DUzy!

:yourock:

[donco6]

18. I couldn't agree more.

After Prop H8 passed, we were informed of a "Protest March" to be held in downtown Denver. Quite a few people showed up - fired up and ready to chant and march down the 16th St. Mall. TWO HOURS LATER, after interminable speeches, songs, choirs, speeches, stories, songs, another choir . . . we just left. There was no fire left in anyone. We went and had a coffee and another HOUR later, a rag tag group of about 30 people wandered down the street holding some signs.

Pathetic.

[MichaelHarris]

25. I tried to tell them

you're not going to change the world by applying for a permit or making a FaceBook club.

[pnwmom]

19. I know 40% is very high, but still the issue doesn't seem comparable to being asked

to kill Vietnamese men, women, and children in an illegal war.

If people were being drafted to be sent to Iraq, I think we'd see more outrage.

Money is one thing. Life and freedom is another.

[jtuck004]

30. You really do have a good point, but that money

prevents freedom in other areas. On the board tonight is a post about a single mother who is experiencing radiating chest pain, was told by the ER to go see a cardiologist and get a stress test. She doesn't have the money. And that is the experience of millions of people tonight.

Our nation desperately needs some vision to move us into the jobs of the future, yet our schools are still primarily dedicated to "schooling", with a totally inadequate effort in training adults who have been laid off after 20 years in new ways to do future work, much less history, philosophy, economics.

At the same time, college presidents, professors, and other administrative personnel (it is being reported) are lining their pockets with these raises. I don't decry them the raise, but those dollars really do represent real choices between paying rent or going to school, and that has a big impact on our future.

I do see your point about how much easier it seems to march on the obvious wrongs of an unjust war when it is in our face like the draft was. That may turn out to be our downfall. The economics happening around us right now may be so subtle yet terribly dangerous. The impacts may have a lot of us marching in the streets in a couple years. And that will be over money\freedom as well.

And maybe "Dick" will learn something from this.

[pnwmom]

34. And you make some very good points, too. n/t

[petronius]

40. I can't say about presidents and admins, but here in CA professors have

taken a 10% furlough (i.e. paycut) and the raises that were negotiated several years ago have not materialized. There's no pocket-lining going on among the academic rank-and-file, just like in the rest of the country...

[glowing]

23. Its all those lock down drills and obedience training from elementary all the way thru.

These kids really can't handle a big transitional change. They don't have survivor skills. They are afraid of social upheavel. For them losing access to a car, cell phone, computer, or Starbucks just throws them off. "Dirty Hippy" is distastful to them. And for the most part their parents have told them to get along and go along to have this "American Dream". They have been taught in instituions drills and lines and obedience (some of these kids have to walk in a weird manner with their hands behind their backs thru the hallways like they are on an invisible chain gang... its super weird-o). Its hard for these kids who have had to have a resume before being accepted to college to let the degree slip from their hands for being "too disobedient".

[Ignis]

27. +1: No Child Left...With Half a Brain to Think for Him/Herself.

George Orwell is spinning in his grave.

[DonCoquixote]

28. You forget

When the 60's warriors did their crusades, they had the knowledge that their demographics were going to rule. They had been given everything the WW2 generation could have given them, and they had the money. The younger generations had to depend on themselves, and knew the hammer would fall on them the hardest.

[Jennicut]

29. Not much different then when I went to college in the late 90's. We never

went through anything like Vietnam. People were apathetic and afraid then too. Except the internet was just taking off and not everyone holed up in their dorm rooms and hid from the world on the computer.

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. You want independent thinkers?

Don't look on campus.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

32. Why didn't you carry out your plan?

[JanMichael]

33. Good god what a miserable future this indicates.

Damn in 1985 students at my HS marched 2 miles from the HS to the Board offices to protest teacher pay cuts (they were already making shit salaries). Press showed up, favorable articles were written, interviews made the paper, people saw how adamant we were.

We made the road one lane from two. We MADE people pay attention. 200 angry kids walking in MASS to support their teachers and mentors made a difference.

The pay cut was avoided.

I imagine if we had planted ourselves on the front lawn of campus NOTHING would have happened.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

35. We Don't Want To Go With You, Bluto!

We might get in trouble!!!

[Berry Cool]

39. Actually, I used to work in the administration buildings of two different schools.

Only one of them was known for having the occasional protest, but when they did it was a pain in the butt because we had to lock our office doors lest the kids come in and sit on our floors.

I might be in sympathy myself with whatever they were protesting about, but their invading my place of work really didn't help matters any for me. I wasn't part of the administration. I was powerless. And I needed to get my job done whether they were raising a ruckus around me or not.

The thing that struck me was that the protests only seemed to take place on the nicest days in spring. No one wanted to march around and carry signs and chant slogans in the middle of winter when the weather was bad.

[Libertas1776]

41. He ain't a dick...

rather more like the other thing...if you catch my drift.